At the end of May, the leaders of Australia’s fossil fuel extraction industry and their enablers in business and government descended on the Brisbane Convention Centre for the annual Australian Energy Producers (AEP) conference.
This time Greenpeace was there to send a message they couldn’t ignore: all members of this fossil fuel lobby group are complicit in fuelling the climate crisis. For companies claiming to support climate action, it’s time to cut ties with the AEP!
With an amazing team of volunteers, we covered the conference surrounds with posters, handed out hundreds of ‘Special Program Supplements’ as people entered the venue, decorated the bathroom mirrors with some cheeky slogans to force attendees to seriously ✨reflect✨, and had our message heard in the media too!
(Keep scrolling for more photos)
And this is just the start.
Australian Energy Producers: the dodgiest fossil fuel lobby group you’ve never heard of
Though not a household name, Australian Energy Producers has an outsized influence on Australian politics. It is the peak body for the fossil fuel industry, comprising approximately 200 members who collectively produce around 95% of Australia’s oil and gas.
Since 1959, the AEP have actively opposed science-aligned climate policies that would control the pollution of the fossil fuel industry. Today, the group continues to aggressively advocate for dirty gas projects like Woodside’s North West Shelf and spend big on ad campaigns to influence public perception of fossil fuels.
Some of its members are the usual suspects: fossil fuel giants like Woodside, Shell, Santos, and Exxon-Mobil.
But you might be surprised to hear that not everyone in AEP are fossil fuel producers. Groups like UNSW, Curtin University, ANZ, PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG also hold membership in this profit-hungry group that lobbies for more dirty gas on their behalf.
Warning: If your company or university is a member of this fossil fuel lobby group, you are supporting a toxic industry and may even be at risk of legal action. Find out more
What did Greenpeace do at the AEP conference?
Instead of telling you exactly everything we did, why not put yourself in the shoes of the audience we hoped to reach with our creative interventions:
You work at an AEP member company like PwC and you’re on your way to the conference on Monday morning. Most of the time you feel pretty good about your job and your company. You’re proud of your company’s strong commitments to reaching net zero emissions and you brought your keep-cup to the event. As you search for the entrance your reflection catches you off guard on the opposite wall. It’s a Greenpeace poster embedded with a shiny mirror, calling the conference “a meeting of Australia’s biggest climate deniers.” You keep walking.
Later that day you check your LinkedIn App to see if any of your networking has paid off in new connection requests. *Sigh* only a post in your feed and a DM from Greenpeace with another dig about the fossil fuel lobby group.
You start to feel a little uncomfortable.
Day 2:
A friendly volunteer with a suit and lanyard points you in the direction of the conference and offers you a Special Program Supplement. Great, you needed one of those!
On your way into the first session you make a pit stop in the bathroom. Washing your hands afterwards you have to rub your eyes a few times to check if you’re starting to imagine things. Nope, it’s real. Right above your reflection is a sign clear as day “I’m the problem, it’s me.”
PwC isn’t the problem though…we do our part on climate, you think! But the words sound emptier than they did before.
Once inside you take your seat and open up the program supplement.
It reads: Australian Energy Producers is a fossil fuel lobby group who is fuelling climate change. And now we have found out who is really behind them…
YOU.
Just like Big Tobacco lied about cigarettes being safe, Big Gas is lying to you about fossil fuels. Drilling for more gas is incompatible with a safe climate.
The person to your right notices the mirror in your program and leans over to take a look. You both laugh it off and roll your eyes, but you’re starting to feel a bit sick. You reach into your bag to grab a notebook and notice another “I’m the problem sticker” that’s stuck between the pages.
You’d like to get out for some air. But Woodside CEO Meg O’Neil is on a tirade blaming young people for climate change and it would be an awkward moment to stand up. You clap politely instead.
Gas is a dirty fossil fuel driving dangerous climate change
In spite of the enormous advertising budgets used by Australian Energy Producers and many of its members to make gas seem ‘clean’ and ‘natural,’ gas is a polluting fossil fuel!!! Do we need to say it louder for the people in the back?
Coal, oil and gas account for over 75% of the global greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change. Gas is primarily made up of methane, which is even more polluting than carbon dioxide. When burned for energy, gas produces carbon dioxide. In Australia, gas accounts for at least 21% of carbon dioxide emissions. But methane and carbon dioxide also leak out into the atmosphere at every stage of gas production and transport, and tracking technology shows that more dangerous greenhouse gasses are released than are officially measured. When the processing and transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are taken into account, there’s nothing “clean” about it: gas is a more polluting fossil fuel than coal.
New gas is incompatible with the world’s goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees
The protest sought to increase pressure on the Australian government to commit to a timeline for a fair and fast phase out away from all fossil fuels, starting with no more coal and gas.
Australia is the world’s third largest exporter of fossil fuels, and the Newcastle Port is the world’s largest coal export port. On the final day of the “protestival”, 170 people were arrested while out in their kayaks blocking the channel to prevent coal ships from passing, successfully forcing one coal ship to turn around.
While Australian Energy Producers like to say “we don’t get to net zero without natural gas” – and use this as justification for further gas expansion, the reality is we won’t get to net zero with new gas.
The International Energy Agency’s landmark Net Zero by 2050 report concluded that no new investment in oil, gas or coal is needed to reach net zero by 2050. Reaching net zero globally by 2050 is essential to limit global warming to 1.5C, in keeping with the Paris Agreement temperature goal – a legally binding international treaty on climate change which Australia is a Party to.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that existing fossil fuel projects could already push us past the 1.5C target. There is a large consensus that new oil and gas projects are fundamentally incompatible with the Paris Agreement, confirmed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development.The good news is, we don’t need to – as around 80% of Australia’s gas is currently exported, and demand for gas is falling domestically as we electrify everything and consumers look for alternatives because of high gas prices. And there is much more that can be done to reduce gas demand and power our homes and businesses with clean energy instead.
Time to quit Australian Energy Producers?
While climate change accelerates, Australian Energy Producers keep pushing fossil fuel interests. Claiming to support Net Zero while acting in ways that would make it impossible to attain simply doesn’t cut it in 2025.
Any company who is an Associate Member of AEP is complicit.
But if companies and universities want to stand on the right side of history, it’s not too late to cut ties with the AEP and cancel their membership.
We need everyone on board to support the renewable energy solutions that will power the clean transition and provide sustainable, well paid jobs, while we work together to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Is your company an AEP member? Email us at [email protected] for more information on how you can raise this issue as an employee.
Not an AEP member but still concerned about its fossil fuel agenda? Sign the petition for no new fossil fuels!
